Armageddon (2005)
Armageddon (2005) was the sixth Armageddon professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on December 18, 2005 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island and was a SmackDown! brand-exclusive event. The main event was a Hell in a Cell match between Randy Orton and The Undertaker, which Undertaker won by pinfall after performing a Tombstone piledriver. One of the predominant matches on the card was an Interpromotional tag team match between WWE Tag Team Champions Batista and Rey Mysterio and World Tag Team Champions Big Show and Kane. Big Show and Kane won the match after Kane pinned Mysterio following a chokeslam. Another primary match on the undercard was Booker T versus Chris Benoit in the fourth match of their "Best of 7" series for the vacant WWE United States Championship. Benoit won the match after forcing Booker to submit with the Crippler Crossface, thus earning his first victory in the series. Background The event featured six professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers belonged to the SmackDown! brand – a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to a different program, the other being RAW. The main event at Armageddon was fought in a Hell in a Cell, a match where the ring is surrounded by a structure of metal between The Undertaker and Randy Orton. The buildup to the match began at WrestleMania 21, where The Undertaker defeated Orton, a RAW superstar at the time, in an Interpromotional match. On the June 16 episode of SmackDown!, during the third annual WWE Draft, a mock sports draft lottery in which wrestlers switched programs, Orton was drafted to the SmackDown! brand. At the August pay-per-view event, SummerSlam, Orton defeated The Undertaker, where he pinned him after performing an RKO following interference from his father, "Cowboy" Bob Orton. This led to a Handicap Casket match between Undertaker and Orton and his father at No Mercy. At the event, Orton and his father defeated Undertaker, and set the casket, which Orton locked Undertaker in, which was scripted to be on fire. The proceeding month, at Survivor Series, the Undertaker returned and attacked several SmackDown! superstars following a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match between RAW and SmackDown!. Orton, who won the match for SmackDown!, was able to escape the attack. The pay-per-view event featured the build up of a rivalry among two tag teams, a group of at least two wrestlers. The two groups were Batista and Rey Mysterio versus Big Show and Kane. On the November 11 episode of SmackDown!, an Interpromotional Street Fight match was scheduled between Batista and Edge. Edge, who earlier in the night, pleaded to Batista not go through the match. Batista, however, declined to cancel the match. Outside the arena, General Manager Theodore Long was outside talking to Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff, who had just arrived to the show. As Long and Bischoff were talking, Chris Masters showed up and grabbed Long from behind and placed him in a full nelson submission hold, which he calls the Master Lock. After the assault on Long, Bischoff and Masters got into a limousine and drove away from the arena. Rey Mysterio, Matt Hardy, and John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) got into JBL's limousine and followed Bishoff and Masters. Inside the arena, Kane and the Big Show showed up and chokeslammed Batista. The chokeslam resulted in Batista legitimately injuring his back. On the November 21 episode of RAW, one of WWE's primary television programs, SmackDown! superstars, Batista, Randy Orton, JBL, Rey Mysterio, and Bobby Lashley, arrived to the show's arena. The Raw superstars met the SmackDown! superstars and a brawl broke out between both rosters. The fight led to Kane and the Big Show to double chokeslam Batista on top of a car, which was scripted so that Batista could attend to his injury. On the November 25 episode of SmackDown!, Batista was scheduled to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Orton in a No Holds Barred match. Batista retained his title after the Raw roster showed up to the arena and began a fight with the SmackDown! roster. Kane and the Big Show double chokeslammed Batista into the announcer's table. Event Before the event aired live on pay-per-view, Jamie Noble defeated Funaki on Sunday Night Heat, which aired on Spike TV. The first match of the event was Matt Hardy versus John Bradshaw Layfield. Aftermath In the "Best of Seven" series, Booker T ended up winning the vacant WWE United States Championship on the January 13, 2006 edition of SmackDown! in Philadelphia, with the help of Randy Orton. The feud between Randy Orton and The Undertaker ended in the Hell in a Cell match after the feud ran for about nine months. Batista and Rey Mysterio, who were the WWE Tag Team Championship holders at the time, lost the title to the team of MNM after Batista suffered a legitimate injury in early 2006, sidelining him for up to seven months. Results Category:2005 in wrestling Category:Pay-Per-View Events Category:WWE Armageddon Category:WWE for Extreme